Crimson
Vol. 62 No. 8
December 6, 1976
Alabama Baptist mix politics and
religion
BIRMINGHAM (BP)--Mixing
politics and religion, more than
5,000 Alabama Baptist--both
black and white and representing
five different conventions and 1.3
million members-came together
for an historic joint meeting to
observe a special U.S. Bicen¬
tennial session at the Bir¬
mingham Jefferson Civic Center
here.
Billed as a “festival of
freedom” the program featured a
mass chorus of 1,500 voices, a
patriotic paean of praise, a ser¬
mon of a black Baptist pastor
from New York, and a Bicen¬
tennial address by Oklahoma
Governor David Boren.
Alabama Governor George C.
Wallace also made a guest ap¬
pearance, and earlier in the an¬
nual meeting of the Alabama
Baptist Convention, U.S. Rep.
John Buchanan (R.-Ala.), a for¬
mer Southern Baptist minister,
urged all churches to open their
doors to all men regardless to
race, creed or color.
Buchanan, congressman of
Alabama's sixth district, told the
Baptist that President elect Jim¬
my Carter’s first test of leader¬
ship came on Sunday, Nov. 14, in
the Plains Baptist Church.
"There they struggled in a
three hour meeting for a
decision” on whether to open
their church to blacks, Buchanan
said. “How I thank God for the
right decision” to end racial
discrimination, he said. “Shall
John Buchanan or any other in¬
dividuals deny the right to wor¬
ship for any person for whom
Christ died?" Buchanan asked.
“God forbid."
The congressman said he
believed Carter to be “a born
again believer in Jesus Christ,"
and he urged the Baptist to "pray
that he will be God's man,”
Buchanan also urged the Baptists
to reach out and join hands with
those about you.”
Gardner Taylor, of Brooklyn,
the first black and the first Bap¬
tist to be elected president of the
New York City Council of Chur¬
ches, told the joint session that
two enormous ills-greed and
racism-stand in the way of
Christians making the nation’s
200'year old promise of freedom
and opportunity a reality.
Taylor, pastor of Concord Bap¬
tist Church of Christ, without
mentioning either man by name,
spoke of Martin Luther King, a
black Baptist born in Georgia in
1929, and Jimmy Carter, a white
Baptist born in Georgia in 1925,
and how the “hand of God made it
possible” for the first Southerner
to be elected President since 1849.
Taylor spoke of the cir¬
cumstances King went through to
achieve his goals, which also
liberated Carter to become
President. He spoke of how they
“found each other's hand and
heart.”
The South’s patriotism has
been known everywhere, Taylor
declared, but he said
"an albatross" has hung around
the neck of a person from the
South wanting to be President.
"We face a new day,” Taylor
Hymnology
BIRMINGHAM-The gift of a
rare hymnbook collection valued
at $80,000 has sparked the
establishment of a hymnology
library at Samford University.
The 2,176 volumes-many of
them one of a kind-were given to
the Samford School of Music by
Lorenz Industries of Dayton, O.,
a family-owned publishing com¬
pany which specializes in
religious materials. The
repository room for the collection
has been named the Lorenz
Library.
The collection includes
representative and significant
19th Century singing school
materials, early gospel books
Sunday School music, Sacred
Harp books, and traditional
denominational hymnals.
Samford School of Music Dean
Dr. Claude H. Rhea hopes that
the Lorenz Library will become a
valuable reference center for
Samford music majors and other
students of hymnology.
"Eventually," he said, “we
hope the Library will contain
early manuscripts and original
artifacts used in the printing of
such works.”
Lorenz Industries and a sub¬
sidiary company, Sonshine
Productions, have also
established a $1,000 scholarship
to be given annually to a Samford
junior music composition major.
The initial winner, selected last
Spring, was Randy Wright of Bir¬
mingham.
Nursing Test given
The PNG or Pre-Nursing
Guidance Test will be given on
Dec. 11 for all those students who
are planning on entering the
Samford School of Nursing. This
test is required for those who are
planning on attending the School
of Nursing, so make plans now to
be in attendance when this test is
given.
noted, “a new hope and a new bir¬
th of freedom. The challenge,” he
declared,” is to determine that
the last vestige of our dark night,
going back to the Civil War, is
behind us."
Gov. Wallace, a surprise ad¬
dition to the program, received a
standing ovation when he was in¬
troduced. He said the greatest
need of the U.S. is “spiritual
revolution or revival which ever
you call it. The Bible is in an
ascendancy and the old fashion
By: Shirley Cary
Samford’s Dean H. Lindy Mar¬
tin has been selected as one of the
five top candidates on President¬
elect Jimmy Carter’s roster of
those being considered for the
position of Secretary of the In¬
terior.
Martin, a full-blooded
Cherokee Indian, has confirmed
the fact that members of the Car¬
ter staff are expected to come to
Birmingham to interview him
personally. Although he has been
informed that if he is not chosen
for Secretary of the Interior, he
may be considered for the office
of presidential adviser of Indian
Affairs, he stated that he would
not accept this position.
Martin, who has worked with
values or moral goodness, which
were practiced a hundred years
ago, have come back in vogue,"
he explained. Wallace said there
is a yearning for the “fun¬
damental Christianity” which
Baptists espouse.
In other action, the Alabama
Baptist Convention passed a
resoltion for prayer and support
of President-elect Carter, re¬
elected Dan Ireland, pastor of
Jackson Way Baptist Church,
Huntsville, Ala., as president;
the Samford administration for
the past twenty years, is also an
ordained Baptist minister and is
presently pastor of South Avon¬
dale Baptist Church of Bir¬
mingham. He is a member of the
Democratic Party and supported
Carter in his bid for the Presiden¬
cy.
The Samford Dean holds the
honorary title of Chief of the
Virginia Cherokee tribe and has
delivered over 600 speeches
through the country during the
past six years in support of the In¬
dian cause. Martin, however,
disapproves of the American In¬
dian Movement’s recent ad¬
vocation of the use of violence to
gain rights for Indians,
"...whatever is done will have to
and voted a $13.3 million annual
budget. Thirty five and a half per¬
cent of the state’s Cooperative
Program budget will go to world¬
wide Southern Baptist missions.
The convention also adopted
resolutions opposing violence on
television, pornography and
alcohol abuses and resolved to
support observance of the Lord’s
Day.
The 1977 convention is set, Nov.
15-17, at the Civic Center, Mon¬
tgomery, Ala.
be done peacefully,” he stated.
Martin, who is backed by a
member of national Indian
organizations, added that he
believes it is time for Indians to
achieve high-level representation
in Washington. Speaking on
current issues which involve the
action of the Interior Department
such as the areas of offshore oil
leasing and the mining coal in
federal forests, he said that “con¬
servation has always been a top
concern of the American Indian.”
The 45-year-old Penbroke
College graduate holds a
master’s degree in psychology
from Auburn University and has
done additional graduate work at
the University of Alabama and
the University of Omaha.
library established after $80,000 gift
Martin selected as cabinet candidate
Samford University Library